Organizational Behavior and Communication

Organizational Behavior and Communication

The Walt Disney Company

I chose The Walt Disney Company for this paper on organizational culture and communication for two reasons. The first is that I worked for this company briefly in 1994 to 1995 in California. I do not think of myself as an expert due to the fact that I only worked there for a year and a half, but I did get a feel for the organizational culture at that time. I worked in the office towers in Burbank, not in the Disneyland park. The second reason is that I grew up with this company, having visited Disney World many times back in the 70’s when I was a child, the park was small and the company was young.

Espoused Values

Philosophy

The message from CEO Robert A. Iger on the website for The Walt Disney Company Corporate Responsibility Report (2008), speaks about the philosophy of the company. He states, “We seek to be a good corporate citizen and hope to be admired for the way we do business as for the quality of the family entertainment we create.” He also says, “Children and families are at the heart so much of what we do at Disney, which is why setting positive examples through the entertainment and experiences we produce is critical to our business approach.”

Mission

The website for the The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies (2010) has a page dedicated to culture which explains the “core mission of providing quality entertainment for people around the world. This is what we do.”

Values

Their values are described as (a) Innovation, (b) Quality, (c) Community, (d) Storytelling, (e) Optimism, and (f) Decency (The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies, 2010).

Vision

Robert Iger, refers to the words of the original founder, Walt Disney, who said that his company was a “shaper of the world of tomorrow” (The Walt Disney Company Corporate Responsibility Report, 2008).

Culture and Alignment of Values

The Walt Disney culture is grounded in children and families being...